A day in the life.....

My mundane life, and the bizarre things that happen (or don't)

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Fun in the dark

Or not, as was the case.

Went up to my parents yesterday (as it was Mother's Day, and also as I am looking after mine/their cat for a few weeks). It was pretty windy all the way there, with tree branches hitting the car, and at one point a tree down across the road. As always, I stopped at the chip shop on the way there, cos they do the best fish and chips in the world (okay, they don't but it's better than here) and they also do scallops - a delicacy I have never had outside The Midlands.

A few hundred yards from home, and the roads were chaos. An argument for organic farming if ever there was one - the wind was blowing the topsoil away - I couldn't see more than 10 feet because of the red dust blowing around. My parents live right on the edge of town, next to fields, only I think most of the fields are now in my parents and their neighbours gardens.

When I got home, was sitting eating my dinner while my Dad was upstairs playing on the computer, when the power goes out. This is around 2 pm.

In the afternoon, me and big sis go off to Hoar Cross Hall to buy 3 one day vouchers as a Mother's Day present (well, she wouldn't want to go on her own would she? Of course she'd want to take us with her...). Once more, a tree across the road, only this time not across part of one lane of a dual carriageway, but across most of a single track lane. Instead of turning round, my sister just drives into the hedge, and scrapes on by. Glad it was her car!

Get home, still no power.

My mom was going to put on a 'buffet' for me and my sisters family last night, had chicken portions, boiling bacon, bread, cheese, crackers, crisps, potatoes etc etc (she's my mother, and I can't explain her thought processes here). But. Still no power. Mom has an electric oven and hob.

Big sis has a gas hob. So, off we go to sisters. She decides she doesn't want to cook in the dark, and by this time most of town has got their electric back, so we have takeaway. In the dark. Lots of nice aromatherapy candles around. Would have been romantic, if it had been a romantic meal, not a family meal.

Then we just sat there. Staring at the TV which wasn't on.

God, it was boring.

At least when the lights are on I play cards with my bro-in-law, or sit and talk make-up and hair with my niece.

Electricity finally came on at 11.30 last night, when we had all given up and gone to bed.

As the X put it - it's probably the most exciting thing to have happened to Rugeley in decades.